The Patriotic Union (, UP) was the

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

created by Spanish dictator

Miguel Primo de Rivera Miguel Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja, 2nd Marquis of Estella, Grandee, GE (8 January 1870 – 16 March 1930), was a Spanish dictator and military officer who ruled as prime minister of Spain from 1923 to 1930 during the last years of the Resto ...

, conceived as a support to his regime and integrating

political Catholicism The Catholic Church and politics concerns the interplay of Catholicism with religious, and later secular, politics. The Catholic Church's views and teachings have evolved over its history and have at times been significant political influences ...

, technocrats, and the business-owning classes. The party's power was dependent upon the power of its founder and leader, not any popular mandate. Following the dismissal of Miguel Primo de Rivera in January 1930 by

King Alfonso XIII Alfonso XIII ( Spanish: ''Alfonso León Fernando María Jaime Isidro Pascual Antonio de Borbón y Habsburgo-Lorena''; French: ''Alphonse Léon Ferdinand Marie Jacques Isidore Pascal Antoine de Bourbon''; 17 May 1886 – 28 February 1941), also ...

, the party was succeeded by the

National Monarchist Union The National Monarchist Union (; UMN) was a Spanish political party, founded in April 1930 as successor to the Patriotic Union, the official party promoted by the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera. Its leadership comprised several ministers of the r ...

Membership

There is no reliable information on membership figures. The party review ''Unión Patriótica'' claimed in 1927 that there were 1,319,428 people on the rolls; in 1928 the same source reported the figure as 1,696,304. Most historians consider these figures fairly meaningless and note that they probably reflect bureaucratic ingenuity rather than the scale of genuine recruitment. However, some scholars settle for official figures, e.g. in the

province of Almería Almería (, also ; ) is a province of the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. It was named after the Arab ruler of Taifa, Banu Al-Miri. It is bordered by the provinces of Granada, Murcia, and the Mediterranean Sea. Its capital is the homony ...

the UP membership is estimated at 30,000 and in mid-size

Valencian Valencian can refer to: * Something related to the Valencian Community ( Valencian Country) in Spain * Something related to the city of Valencia * Something related to the province of Valencia in Spain * Something related to the old Kingdom of ...

towns like

Gandia Gandia (, ) is a city and Municipalities of Spain, municipality in the Valencian Community, eastern Spain on the Mediterranean. Gandia is located on the Costa de Valencia, south of Valencia, Spain, Valencia and north of Alicante. Vehicles can ...

Torrent Torrent or torrents may refer to: * A fast flowing stream Animals * Torrent duck, a species of the family Anatidae * Torrent fish * Torrent frog, various unrelated frogs * Torrent robin, a bird species * Torrent salamander, a family of ...

Utiel Utiel is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of Plana de Utiel in the Valencian Community, Spain. According to the 2014 census, the municipality has a population of 12,082 inhabitants. The Shrine of El Remedio is located on top of the Sierra d ...

at 500–1,000 members. An official yet not public note from Primo de Rivera, dated 1929, estimated membership at 600–700,000. Many historians tend to settle for even smaller figures, ranging from 400,000 to 500,000. These estimates are pretty much a guesswork, though some scholars base their calculations on circulation of the UP daily ''La Nación'', at its peak printed in 50,000 copies. Figures in the range of 1.3m–1.7m would suggest the membership rate of some 6–8% (compared to the entire population), figures in the range of 0.4–0.5m would point to some 2%. In comparison to other state parties, in the mid-1930s some 10% of the Italian population were on the rolls of PNF; in 1937 some 8% of Germans were members of

NSDAP The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor, the German Workers ...

. The communist state parties of the late 20th century recorded a membership rate between 4% in the USSR to 8–10% in Poland or Czechoslovakia.

FET y de las JONS The Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional Sindicalista (; FET y de las JONS), frequently shortened to just "FET", was the sole legal party of the Francoist regime in Spain. It was created by General Francisco ...

, the state party during the

Francoist dictatorship Francoist Spain (), also known as the Francoist dictatorship (), or Nationalist Spain () was the period of Spanish history between 1936 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death i ...

, boasted of some 0.9m members in 1942, around 3% of the Spanish population.Stanley G. Payne, ''The Franco Regime, 1936–1975'', Madison 2011, , p. 176

Notes

{{Authority control Conservative parties in Spain Defunct political parties in Spain 20th century in Spain Parties of one-party systems Dictatorship of Primo de Rivera Monarchist parties in Spain Catholic political parties